Homes damaged as 5.2 earthquake rocks England

An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale shook England early on Wednesday morning.

One man was injured when a chimney fell through his bedroom ceiling and many homes and businesses were damaged by the tremor.

The quake's epicentre was near Market Rasen, in Lincolnshire, but people across England said they felt buildings shaking shortly before 1am. Many said the tremors had been strong enough to wake them.

Lee Rushworth, 29, from Hartlepool, was woken up when the tremor made his sofa shake against the bedroom wall of his ground floor flat.

"I thought someone was banging on the wall behind me but there was no-one there," he said.

A man from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was taken to hospital after a chimney collapsed and fell into his bedroom. A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: "We had an emergency call to Wombwell, Barnsley. A chimney had come through the bedroom roof."

She said the man suffered injuries to his pelvis and was taken to Barnsley District Hospital.

She said the service had received only two calls relating to the earthquake - the second was from someone who was frightened.

East Midlands Ambulance Service, which covers Lincolnshire, said there had been a lot of emergency calls but no reports of injuries. "Most of them were from elderly people who were quite frightened," a spokeswoman said.

The North West Ambulance Service said its crews had reported feeling the tremor from Macclesfield to Southport, but they had not heard of any injuries. Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service confirmed they had received reports of tremors but no reports of injuries.